A Bird Took My Wecome Sign Seriously!

16 years ago

I found this wreath at a garage sale a few years back. With my love of bears, it's the perfect thing to greet people at our front door. Today, I was washing down our covered porch when I saw a piece of moss hanging from the wreath. Looking closer, I saw 2 small nests behind the bear with 3 eggs in one nest. The mama bird came back shortly after that! She took the "Welcome" sign on the wreath seriously! Ha! I love nature and am always in awe of it, especially since we live in a wooded area. Even something so simple makes my day...and my 6 year old daughter was ecstatic. She was outside all evening looking at the bird through my bird watching binoculars! This feathered creature makes my garage sale find even more special! Kirk

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Comments (13)

amesly
16 years ago
That's the coolest thing I've seen today!
kirkus
Original Author
16 years ago
OOOPS! I need to slow down! "Wecome" in my subject posting should say "Welcome"! :o) Oh, well! Love the bird. Looked her up in my bird book tonight but haven't identified it yet. Any ideas? Kirk
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misselaineous
16 years ago
Hi...Your new tenant in the wreath ( very cool!) looks like a house wren to me. Don't know the scientific name, but we get them quite often on our large open porch in the spring. They swing from basket to plant to hanging candle holder...whatever I have hanging at the time...eat, bugs I'm assuming, and have built nests in odd places, like in a small basket or a hanging plant. Small nest, small bird, big fun watching them!
kudzukween
16 years ago
That's wonderful,but beware of snakes coming after them!!! We had a wreath on our front door that the birds built a nest in. Every once in a while we'd open the door and a bird would fly in, it took us a few days to realize a nest was in the wreath!And then one day the baby birds were left all alone. Well,that night the old man was taking the dog for a walk,but he slammed the door shut as soon as he opened it up,and his eyes were HUGE! I asked him what is it? thinking maybe a possum or coon or something was on the porch. But he couldn't even say a word! So I grabbed the door and opened it to look,and he finally got his tongue back and said "snake!" he said "it's in the wreath all curled up in the nest". I tried to look through the window to see,and couldn't,so I called my son who lived next door at the time,to come and bring a gun. I said I don't care if you leave a hole in the door,just kill that snake! So I'm watching through the window while my son takes care of it,and it comes flying out of that nest with it's jaws unhinged,and I see my son jumping back with this huge snake coming straight at him!! He killed it, I INSISTED!! That snake had four lumps in it,and I cried and asked my son can't you cut the snake open and get the babies out? but he and DH said no,they're dead. The next day the mama bird came back,it was too too sad. Evidently the snake had been around for some time, and I never noticed. We left the wreath on the door for a few more years,but they moved their nests to my daughters bedroom window,and people would ask about the little hole in the door and I'd tell them the sad story! We had to have a new door after the storm,this year the birds briefly thought about making a nest in it,but changed their minds.
cindee11461
16 years ago
That is really cute that the bird built a nest in the wreath. I love birds too(-:
And OMG kudzukween!!!!!! That is a really terrible story. Mean old snakes living in MS. I haven't seen any snakes in nests here. But theres always a first I guess. )-: I feel sorry for the mommy bird. I hope she was able to make a new nest somewhere safer and start over.
pattico_gw
16 years ago
I think it is a House Wren too...they usually nest in a bird house.

That is like the bird that has been dive bombing my head every time I go out to turn on the hose to water flowers.

I think the babies have "flown the coop"...because she is not there attacking me anymore...lol

Someplace around here I have a pic of a robin that nested in a large wreath I had hanging on the front of my house.

patti
kirkus
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you for the bird identification! Oh my gosh, Kudzukween, I could really picture your story as you told it! Gave me the eebie jeebies! I won't tell my wife your story. She would freak out! :o) We never use our front door so don't know how long the bird has been there. I find it interesting there are 2 nests behind the bird. Patti, I would love to see your picture! Thanks for the information everyone! Kirk
quidam
16 years ago
I love it when nature lets us watch!!
robolady
16 years ago
Love the Welcome Nests, how sweet.
Kudzukwee, OMG, Id've panicked too. I hate snakes. do you know what kind it was?
craftylady-2006
16 years ago
Kirkus, that is just so wonderful a mama bird chose your wreath for her nest. Those pics are great.

Years ago I was cutting the hedges straight across like you're supposed to and didn't realize there was a new bird's nest just about to the top of the hedge with eggs in it. After my trimming, the nest was too exposed to the elements and the hot sun and (you're gonna laugh), but I actually constructed this little canapy out of sticks and a dishtowel so they would have some protection. That mama bird was going nuts up on our roof watching me do this. She returned to the nest though. I would sneek over to the nest when she wasn't around and peek in to see what was going on. One day they had hatched and the babies looked like little wet worms with fuzz. My son got a real kick out of that. A little bit later when I peeked, there were four sets of eyes and beaks staring right back at me. Soon after they left the nest and I felt good that I had helped save them after I had destroyed their protection.

Kudz - I'm another one going to say OMG, what a horrible thing to have gone through. I can just see you yelling at your son to "take care of that thing!!"

My roommate from the Navy and I went up North of Gulfport for a summer ride one day and ended up at a huge lake where we went swimming and had a picnic. She was walking around the area when all of a sudden she came running back towards me screaming - Snake, Snake! I jumped up of course and was frantic from her screaming thinking the worse had happened to her. She made me hurry up and get everything packed up in the car cause she wanted to leave immediately. She told me to drive slowly down the road because the snake was still there. In the middle of the road was the most largest snake I had ever seen. I mean that thing was "huge" - I kid you not when I say it was around four feet long and had a girth of about 15 inches. We never went back to that pond area again.
goldenpond
16 years ago
I hope you send the photo to your newspaper.Yes snakes can really climb and throw themselves. I heard a noise on my backdoor and a large black snake was throwing himself at the downspout trying to get to some frogs hiding on the lights.They climb straight up our palm trees too!We don't kill them though because they eat rats and BAD snakes.
kudzukween
16 years ago
That was a huge rat snake in my wreath. You can smell those,they stink really bad,harder to smell when it's wet and humid and mold and mildew and fungus is growing,lol!

Crafty...wonder if you went to Flint Creek? or Windy Hills? Maybe even further to Paul B. Johnson State Park? You know those snakes get much bigger around here!
jeanr_2007
16 years ago
What an interesting thread to read! I love the birds in the wreath photos and I hope Michigan doesn't have rat snakes. Great stories here.

A Bird Took My Wecome Sign Seriously!

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